Since the first time I connected my GameBoy with a friend's to play a mean
game of head-to-head Tetris, I've always loved being able to plug together
two machines and play against someone else. When 3Com introduced the Palm III
with an infrared port I was hoping that someone would take advantage of the
port and the beaming ability of the Palm and once again bring back the head-to-head
competition feel that I have been longing for.

You can imagine my excitement when I found IR Pong one day while browsing
my favorite site for Palm/Pilot software: http://www.palmgear.com.
IR Pong is a game that allows two players to play Pong against
each other from their own Palm/Pilots. In order to play the game, each player
needs to have a Palm/Pilot with Infrared I/O hardware (the Palm III or Palm
III upgrade, Palm IIIx, Palm V, or Palm VII are all supported).

The hardest part for me was finding someone who not only had a Palm/Pilot with
IR capabilities but also wanted to play the game with me. Unfortunately, there
are many Palm/Pilot users out there who don't see a need to play a videogame
on their Palm/Pilot. For shame! Anyway, I digress. Fortunately, I was having
a meeting with a Palm V owner and decided to see if she would be interested
in playing. Here's how it went:

First she needed to get the IR Pong software on her Palm. This was as
simple as me beaming the software to her. Once she received the software she
then started IR Pong. I also started IR Pong at that time and
then clicked the Connect
button. Within about a second I was playing Pong against her in real-time.

The game itself offers a few customizable gameplay options:

3 different paddle speeds

3 different ball speeds

9 different board layouts, including random

For
those of you who don't remember Pong, here's how you play the game. The
object of the game is to get the ball to go past your opponent's paddle. Gameplay
begins with one of the players holding the ball on his or her paddle. You start
the game when you release the ball by pressing either the Page Up or Page Down
button. Once the ball is in play you can deflect it from your goal by moving
your paddle back and forth and bouncing the ball off of your paddle. You move
your paddle to the left by either tapping the Date Book or Address button and
you move it to the right by using the To Do or the Memo button. The score is
kept by the program automatically.

Gameplay is fluid, fast, and furious. As soon as we started playing we were
amazed at how fast the response time was. I could see her paddle moving with
no delay whatsoever. In addition, we had a lot of room to move around without
losing our connection. We did lose our connection at least once only because
we wanted to get further away from each other. Fortunately, the game notified
us that the connection was lost and all we had to do was click on the Connect
button to pick up where we left off.

If you have a Palm/Pilot with Infrared capability this game is a must have.
It's great to just keep it on your Palm/Pilot because in order to play against
someone all you need to do is beam it to your soon-to-be opponent.

Ratings Defense
For Quality, I gave IR Pong a solid five Geekheads out of five. Not only
can you play a normal game of Pong in real-time with no glitches but
you also can change the board and the speed of either the ball or the paddle.
Till took Pong to a whole new level with this game.

For Geekness, I also gave IR Pong a solid five Geekheads out of five.
Till took advantage of the ease of use that 3Com has built in to the IR port
to bring a whole new level of gameplay to the Palm/Pilot. I was absolutely amazed
at how easy it was to get this game up and running, not to mention the fluid
gameplay.

My only concern is how much battery life constant beaming for gameplay consumes?
I'll have to write to the author for that answer.

Not only did I give Till a perfect score for Quality and Geekness, but IR
Pong also earns a spot on our UGeek
Pick list. Congrats, Till!